Up to now, the staple of mobile marketing has been SMS messaging, a channel traditionally used for below-the-line marketing purposes. But mobile is about to become the next battleground for above-the-line campaigns as consumers spend increasing amounts of time on their smartphones and apps create opportunities for creative campaigns.

Rather than looking at traditional SMS messaging, brands and retailers are jumping into mobile messaging using apps like Snapchat and WhatsApp as platforms to create a more immersive and narrative-driven marketing experience.

“Consumers are spending a lot of time on these free mobile messaging apps, but the marketing opportunities are just starting to open up,” says Julian Smith, global head of strategy at mobile marketing agency Fetch. “So it’s quite a challenge, as WhatsApp has always said it doesn’t want to accept advertising, but others are more content rich and offer better brand opportunities.” Read more at CMO.com